Twenty-five comments

The Tinker’s Daughter

From the playing of Boys of the Lough. You can triplet almost any of the quarter notes, particularly those long A’s in the first half. (3ABA will give you a more lyrical feel at a loitering pace, and (3AAA punches the rhythm home at session speed.

You can also add some variety to the 1st and 5th measures of the first half by playing them |A2 FA DFAB|.

This Is What You Do??

The version in Vincent Broderick’s book, the Turoe Stone, does not have Will’s 2nd time ending on the B-part. Most versions I’ve heard have a distinctive repeated phrase in bars 3 & 4 of the B-part that goes something like this |f2df e2de|f2df edBd|, or as written in the book |f2df efdf|f2df edBd|.

Where the name came from

My teacher Chris Droney wanted me to get the notes of this tune and when i was asking about the curious name, he said that Vincent(I think im correct now)asked Chris to help in naming it and then a woman fron the travelling community came to the door enquring for food.As she had her daughter with her the name arose from that!!!

tinker’s daughter/reel/possible bowing patterns on opening

A call to all you verteran fiddlers out there….could you suggest possible bowing patterns for the opening bar of Tinker’s Daughter? I’ve got a couple I’m trying out [and sometimes even varying throughout the tune and the 2nd pass] but I’m just wondering if my hunches about how I’m hearing it played are more or less accurate [hard to tell exactly on the Comhaltas session version since you can’t really hear the fiddle]

Re: tinker’s daughter/reel/possible bowing patterns on opening

In the absence of input from Tom, Dicks and Wills and at the risk of being told by Michael that any such advice is useless in print - and I tend to agree with him BTW - here’s my two pennorth:

Although I generally use a fair bit of slurred cross-bowing in those "rocking across the strings" figures, in a passage like that I would bow every note in the first bar separately - down for the long A, and then up-down etc. for the others.

Hitting the strong offbeats with an up-bow, where the pedal (that is, the A) is on a higher string, lets you dig in (just catching the A string at the same time) in a way that is both softer and dirtier than the effect you would generally get by using a down bow. Works for me.

Re: tinker’s daughter/reel/possible bowing patterns on opening

thanks Jeeves. Unlike Michael, I don’t entirely think it’s a useless exercise [if he actually does], as youtube vids and your one suggestion [out of many] prove. If nothing else it provides a variation which is what keeps things fun and interesting for player and punter alike seems to me. I like the soft and dirty aspect of it too. Hadn’t thought of it in those terms. Grist for the mill. cheers,

Re: tinker’s daughter/reel/possible bowing patterns on opening

Think less in terms of patterns and more in terms of all the possible single bow and slur combinations. Try them all, suss out what sounds best to you (it may not be the most intuitive or "natural" —for you— way to bow the phrase). The main thing is to listen to how different combos of singles and slurs affects the pulse. And then decide how many of these bowings suit your sense of what the tune ought to sound like.

FWIW, some common ways to bow that phrase:

1. As Jeeves says, single bows through the whole A2 FA DAFA bit, with up bows on the As and down bows on the Fs and D.

2. Down on the first A2 and slur onto the F, still down. Then up on A and the rest bowed as in #1 above.

3. Pedal bow it: up on A2, down on F, slur up on ADA, down on F, up on the last A.

4. Down on A2 then up slur the FA together, then down on D and single bow the rest (uA dF uA)

5. Pedal bow differently: Down on A2, slur up FA, then down on D, and pedal slur up on AFA

6. Up on A2, up slur FA, up slur DA, down on F, up on A

Other "permutations" are of course possible, but I would use most or all of the above bowings in playing such a phrase.

Re: tinker’s daughter/reel/possible bowing patterns on opening

Thanks Will. Btw…that advice you gave way back was invaluable. Got me set in the right direction. It all made sense after that. It was the perfect template for many other aspects of the music. Much appreciated.

Re: tinker’s daughter/reel/possible bowing patterns on opening

@ Will…I have indeed tried some of these patterns you suggest above albeit with slight variations. But not all of them. Excellent. Helps confirm that my hunches about "the sound" that each produces is the way to go….that ultimately it’s a matter of personal taste and hearing what your ear likes while also developing a style, and, sometims I think too some variations have to hinge on one’s technical ability at the time in one’s development. Diff bowings produce diff sounds, but also diff challenges technically…but it’s all good and probably good not to have just *one* way, but many ways. Thanks again.

Re: tinker’s daughter/reel/possible bowing patterns on opening

Oops. Yep. Sorry Jeeves. Either way works a treat, just different emPHASis, eh?

mtodd, I’ve learned the most from woodshedding a bit on things that felt awkward at first, instead of following the familiar path of least resistance. I can think of a few bowing ideas that felt impossible at first that now feel like the most natural thing in the world.

And for common phrases such as this one, even in my early years, I tried to have at least 2 or 3 ways to bow them, right from the start.